What Is ESG? (Video)

As we look ahead to 2025, the landscape of debt financing and M&A activity is poised for significant transformation.

The SEC and CFTC have fundamentally shifted their enforcement approach in 2026, moving away from high-volume technical violations toward targeted actions addressing serious fraud and market manipulation. This mid-year update examines new leadership priorities, enhanced inter-agency coordination, revised cooperation policies, the elimination of "no-deny" settlement provisions, and a landmark Supreme Court ruling on disgorgement that collectively reshape the regulatory landscape for market participants.

Healthcare M&A activity maintained steady momentum through Q2 2026, driven by physician practice consolidation, AI-enabled technology acquisitions, and strategic outpatient expansion. Private equity investment persisted despite intensifying regulatory scrutiny of MSO arrangements, while digital health buyers paid significant premiums for platforms demonstrating production-grade AI capabilities and proprietary data assets.

Law firms are one of the last major professional services segments without meaningful private equity (PE) penetration.

Simpson Thacher Sustainability And ESG: Regulatory Update – September 2026

What Every Owner Needs to Know Before Signing on the Dotted Line

Ballard Spahr attorneys provide comprehensive updates on mortgage banking and consumer finance developments, including DIDMCA legislative efforts, website tracking litigation trends...

SEC-registered investment advisers are subject to an array of reporting and compliance obligations in order to maintain registered investment adviser status.

The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance has announced it will no longer respond to Rule 14a-8 no-action requests, marking a significant shift in the shareholder proposal process. Companies must still comply with notification requirements under Rule 14a-8(j), but without staff guidance on exclusion decisions, they will need to rely on existing SEC guidance, precedent, and judicial decisions.

State legislatures across the U.S. have enacted a complex web of AI regulations affecting private sector businesses, spanning employment decisions, healthcare applications, consumer interactions, and digital rights. These laws impose compliance obligations including bias audits, disclosure requirements, and restrictions on automated decision-making, with enforcement mechanisms ranging from regulatory oversight to private rights of action. Understanding which state laws apply to your AI systems is critical,

Massachusetts voters will decide nine statewide ballot questions in November 2026 that could fundamentally reshape the state's legal, regulatory, and fiscal landscape. These measures address government transparency, election reforms, housing development, marijuana regulation, firearms laws, and state revenue limits, with implications extending far beyond Election Day to implementation, regulation, and ongoing policy debates.

The Trump administration's most-favored-nation pricing initiative has expanded to include nine additional mid-sized pharmaceutical manufacturers, bringing the total coverage to 89% of the brand drug market. These new agreements focus on Medicaid pricing discounts aligned with international rates, while manufacturers commit billions to U.S. manufacturing and research in exchange for exemptions from future pricing mandates and potential tariffs.

The California Legislature’s 2025–2026 session ended with workplace-related artificial intelligence or automated technology in its crosshairs. If Governor Newsom signs this suite of bills, California employers may face a number of new obligations relating to AI-driven surveillance tools, automated decision systems, and other emerging workplace technologies.

Sources informed the Wall Street Journal that a definitive MasterCard settlement could be announced as soon as this week.

On September 18, 2026, President Trump issued a proclamation that extends through September 21, 2027 a $100,000 fee for H-1B petitions that are filed as consular petitions or are only approvable for consular notification.

The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital has launched a groundbreaking $500 million to $1 billion fund finance program targeting critical minerals vital to U.S. national security. How will this federal-private capital partnership reshape financing for companies addressing supply chain vulnerabilities in strategic materials?

Antora Energy, a leading US thermal battery manufacturer, has secured $550 million in Series C financing to scale deployment of its innovative energy storage technology that converts low-cost electricity into heat stored in solid carbon blocks. The oversubscribed funding round will support expanded manufacturing capacity, establishment of a second US production hub, and large-scale project deployment to meet surging energy demand from industrial facilities, data centers, and the grid.

New York lawmakers have passed Senate Bill 2236-A, known as the “Wage Payment Integrity Act” (the “Act”), which would significantly expand what qualifies as protected “wages” under the New York Labor Law (“NYLL”) and would give employees enhanced tools to recover unpaid compensation.

The US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Dominance Financing has unveiled its Strategic Plan for 2026-2030, marking a significant shift in federal energy financing priorities. With over $300 billion in combined loan authority across four programs, EDF aims to deploy hundreds of billions in new financing commitments while maintaining rigorous underwriting standards.

Following a bench trial, on January 10, 2025, Judge Reed O'Connor of the US District Court of the Northern District of Texas held that the managers of a company's 401(k) retirement plans...